Rohan > Rohan's Quotes

“Tomorrow will be like today, and the day after tomorrow will be like day before yesterday," said Apollonius. "I see your remaining days each as quiet, tedious collections of hours. You will not travel anywhere. You will think no new thoughts. You will experience no new passions. Older you will become but not wiser. Stiffer but not more dignified. Childless you are, and childless you shall remain. Of that suppleness you once commanded in your youth, of that strange simplicity which once attracted a few men to you, neither endures, nor shall you recapture any of them anymore. People will talk to you and visit with you out of sentiment or pity, not because you have anything to offer them. Have you ever seen an old cornstalk turning brown, dying, but refusing to fall over, upon which stray birds alight now and then, hardly remarking what it is they perch on? That is you. I cannot fathom your place in life's economy. A living thing should either create or destroy according to its capacity and caprice, but you, you do neither. You only live on dreaming of the nice things you would like to have happen to you but which never happen; and you wonder vaguely why the young lives about you which you occasionally chide for a fancied impropriety never listen to you and seem to flee at your approach. When you die you will be buried and forgotten and that is all. The morticians will enclose you in a worm-proof casket, thus sealing even unto eternity the clay of your uselessness. And for all the good or evil, creation or destruction, that your living might have accomplished, you might just as well has never lived at all. I cannot see the purpose in such a life. I can see in it only vulgar, shocking waste.”
― Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao

“I have loved in life and I have been loved.
I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar,
and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow.
My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it.
My heart has been rent and joined again;
My heart has been broken and again made whole;
My heart has been wounded and healed again;
A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet.
I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire,
and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
I wept in love and made all weep with me;
I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;
And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.
The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;
With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved,
I shook the throne of God in heaven.
I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,
"Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret."
She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,
"My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover,
and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Dance of the Soul: Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan

“We grown-up people think that we appreciate music, but if we realized the sense that an infant has brought with it of appreciating sound and rhythm, we would never boast of knowing music. The infant is music itself.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, Mastery Through Accomplishment

“There are two aspects of individual harmony: the harmony between body and soul, and the harmony between individuals. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony. And harmony is the best given by producing harmony in one's own life. ”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The first lesson to learn is to resign oneself to the little difficulties in life, not to hit out at everything one comes up against. If one were able to manage this one would not need to cultivate great power; even one's presence would be healing.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“If people but knew their own religion, how tolerant they would become, and how free from any grudge against the religion of others.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, The bowl of saki: Thoughts for daily contemplation from the sayings and teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“When we pay attention to nature's music, we find that everything on the Earth contributes to its harmony.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I wondered about the secret of its nature. I persevered and strove in search of the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover over my own soul. I realized that that in me which believed and that in me that wondered, that which was found at last, was no other than my soul. I thanked the darkness that brought me to the light, and I valued this veil that prepared for me the vision in which I saw myself reflected, the vision produced in the mirror of my soul. Since then, I have seen all souls as my soul, and realized my soul as the soul of all. And what bewilderment it was when I realized that I alone was, if there were anyone, that I am whatever and whoever exists, and that I shall be whoever there will be in the future.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Reason is the illusion of reality”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity within.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Moth: I gave you my life.

Flame: I allowed you to kiss me.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Divine sound is the cause of all manifestation. The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“‎"Intellect is the knowledge obtained by experience of names and forms; wisdom is the knowledge which manifests only from the inner being; to acquire intellect one must delve into studies, but to obtain wisdom, nothing but the flow of divine mercy is needed; it is as natural as the instinct of swimming to the fish, or of flying to the bird. Intellect is the sight which enables one to see through the external world, but the light of wisdom enables one to see through the external into the internal world.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“By our trust in the divine beauty in every person we develop that beauty in ourselves.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The souls of all are from one and the same source but a soul which is unveiled shines out. Love and light come continually from such souls. We need no proof of it for it is living all else is dead in comparison.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Whatever your life's pursuit -- art, poetry, sculpture, music, whatever your occupation may be -- you can be as spiritual as clergy, always living a life of praise.”
― Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Everything in life is speaking in spite of its apparent silence.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“All that produces longing in the heart
deprives the heart of freedom.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Gayan: Notes from the Unstruck Music

“Be contented with what you possess in life; be thankful for what does not belong to you, for it is so much care the less; but try to obtain what you need in life, and make the best of every moment of your life.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Selfishness keeps man blind through life.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, The bowl of saki: Thoughts for daily contemplation from the sayings and teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan

“ For the value of everything exists for man only so long as he does not understand it. When he has fully understood, the value is lost, be it the lowest thing or the highest thing. ”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan, The bowl of saki: Thoughts for daily contemplation from the sayings and teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Love is the divine Mother's arms; when those arms are spread, every soul falls into them.

The Sufis of all ages have been known for their beautiful personality. It does not mean that among them there have not been people with great powers, wonderful powers and wisdom. But beyond all that, what is most known of the Sufis is the human side of their nature: that tact which attuned them to wise and foolish, to poor and rich, to strong and weak -- to all. They met everyone on his own plane, they spoke to everyone in his own language. What did Jesus teach when he said to the fishermen, 'Come hither, I will make you fishers of men?' It did not mean, 'I will teach you ways by which you get the best of man.' It only meant: your tact, your sympathy will spread its arms before every soul who comes, as mother's arms are spread out for her little ones.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The gardener uses both roses in the flowerbed and thorns in making fences.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“There is no end to one’s faults. To think of them makes one humble.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“What one really wants is attracted by one, and one is attracted by what one wants.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“What is inspired comes already arranged beforehand and there is very little to be done by the brain and by the mind.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Es gibt zweierlei: Wissen und Sein.
Es ist leicht, die Wahrheit zu wissen,
aber sehr schwer, Wahrheit zu sein.
Nicht im Wissen der Wahrheit erfüllt sich der Zweck des Lebens;
er erfüllt sich dadurch, dass man Wahrheit ist.”
― Hazrat Inayat Khan